Week 43: Reflecting with Shalom

Sunday, my housemates and I shared reflections from our year with our Shalom community. I've included the draft of what I wrote for that so you can read it here. Although it's not a word-for-word script of what I shared in-person, it will provide some of the main ideas that I shared about.

Being in a place is important.

When I arrived in Tucson, I had never moved away from home to really live somewhere else. Yes, I was in Ecuador last summer, living with host families while I was on Goshen College’s SST but I was there with my partner and other friends, I knew that it would only be three months, and I was only one time zone away from the rest of my family. MVS was a new program, Tucson was a completely different part of the country and 2-3 time zones away from my partner and family, my housemates were near-strangers, and I was starting a new job.

When I think back now, it’s kind of impressive how quickly some of that fear melted away. Sure, I had moments where I was homesick but overall, I was able to build routines and feel settled here. That’s thanks to my housemates, the VS support committee, my co-workers, and Shalom fellowship. This didn’t happen without some effort. We spent time together. We learned about each other and have shared experiences from border delegation, various retreats, game nights, Sunday mornings, house meetings, and many, many meals together. We grew closer together by being together.

I experienced the power of being in my work, too. When I speak with migrants and their family members on the phone and in person, they’re grateful to have someone listening to their stories that cares and wants to provide them with help. While I may not always have the most hopeful news for them, I can at least witness their experiences.

But there’s tension for me in this experience of being with migrants because hearing their stories can be hard and it’s not always something I want to do. One of the main reasons why they’re calling me and I’m not calling them is because of where we were born, something neither of us had control over. When I speak with people born in the 1970s I think, what would my parents have done in this situation? When I speak to people born in the early 2000s I think, what would my brothers have done in this situation? When I speak to people born in 2000, I think, what would I do in their situation? I can’t answer these questions but they help me empathize with the people I speak with. This helps me remain calm on the phone and gracious when they ask repeatedly what they can do to fix their situation and I have to tell them, our system doesn’t provide them pathways.

Being present somewhere also means that I’m not present somewhere else. This year that meant that I was far away from my partner and family but when they came out to visit, I had a new place, a new home, to share with them. They got to experience a bit of my year. I noticed this when we would return back to the house from a trip, too. There was a sense of being home. This was the place that I returned to at the end of every day and every trip. But there was also a sense of missing home, where my important people are.

Sometimes my brain was not the present. At the beginning of the year, I was wrapping up a capstone course from my SST experience in Ecuador so, on a weekly basis, I was spending significant energy thinking about the past. Then, as the year went on, it became easier, and necessary, to plan for the future, both in Tucson and for the next phase of my life. I kept myself grounded in the moment by noticing the little things like the mountains on my bike ride to work, the flowers on the patio where I would eat my lunch, the food that my housemates had prepared. Yet it’s still sometimes challenging to feel the urgency of planning for next month, post-MVS, when a lot of my immediate needs are met.

Now I’m preparing to leave and Tucson feels like one of my homes, the southwest, while still hot, is not as scary as I thought, my housemates are close friends, and while I won’t be working at the Florence Project next year, and immigration law feels like a more serious career option. While I still have a few more weeks before I leave and in that time there are good-byes to be said and plans to be made, it remains important to be present in all ways.

This was a picture taken at our support committee celebration last night. We provided the venue and MVS-themed Amazing Race and the support committee provided delicious food and wonderful conversation. Our challenges included: putting away food, playing pickleball, figuring out our weekly meal schedule, and finding a hidden lizard. We were gifted with beautiful blankets/tablecloths from Mexico that matched our favorite colors.

Also this week, I picked up my bike from the shop on Thursday and was able to bike to work again! I'm looking forward to a couple more bike commutes but the impending 110 degree weather might persuade me to take the bus again.

AND I finally finished the puzzle that's been on our table for the last month. This is maybe the longest it took me to complete a puzzle this year but I got it done. The theme is a little wintry so maybe that's why it was slow going.

You can also check out more photos from our Market on the Move haul (so many Brussels sprouts), a Korean dish I made for dinner last week, and a hike we took today while we had Juneteenth off from work. https://photos.app.goo.gl/rFXtPMJf9GjWMsFd9